Dreams of an Absolution
by NetRaptor
Summary: Silver the Hedgehog shows up on the Floating Island just as the Black Arms aliens invade Mobius. As Knuckles leaves to help Sonic, island defense falls to Talon, Silver, and the two island chao. A short story.
1. Chapter 1

Dreams of an Absolution  
A fic sketch by K.M. Hollar

Copyright information: All Sonic characters copyrighted by Sega. Zephyer and Talon copyrighted  
by the author. This story copyrighted 2007.

Time is an unseen thief  
It steals my thoughts and memories from me  
I'm left behind with this apathy so tempting  
where minutes don't seem so kind  
I find that...

Time comes, and I don't matter  
Time numbs, and dreams lay shattered  
I stand, and time just passes me by  
While the clock on the wall is racing  
I fight for shreds of feeling  
Inside, time keeps stealing mine

-Thief, Echoing Green

"Sir, do you believe in ghosts?" Talon asked.

If anyone else had asked him that question, Knuckles would have laughed in their face. But  
because it was Talon, asking softly and seriously, his eyes accented by his black forelock and  
white markings, that Knuckles considered the question soberly.

"No, I don't," said the echidna. "I've seen a lot of strange things, including supernatural things, but  
I don't think dead people come back around to haunt live ones."

Talon was silent for a moment, gazing off into the distance. "So what's that?"

Knuckles and Talon were in one of the marshiest places in Mushroom Hill, and it was well after  
dark. At night, the gigantic mushrooms took on an otherworldly look, and some of them glowed  
with a creepy green or blue light. It was easy to believe in ghosts in the Mushroom Hills at night.

Knuckles looked where Talon was pointing, and saw a misty white shape floating along above  
one of the ponds nearby. "Probably just swamp gas and phosphor," he started to say, but the  
words died on his lips. At the same time, Talon shrank close to Knuckles and grabbed his hand in  
terror.

As the thing drifted closer, its misty shape resolved into what was unmistakably a hedgehog. But  
it was a white hedgehog with a forelock that stood straight up, like a fan of feathers on his  
forehead. He moved without touching the ground, arms drooping at his sides, eyes fixed on some  
point in front of him. A halo of greenish light surrounded him and reflected in the water.

Knuckles and Talon stood frozen. Knuckles could not breathe. Talon gripped his arm harder and  
harder the closer the ghost drifted. "Should we run? Should we run?" Talon whispered frantically.

Knuckles rediscovered his lungs. "No," he whispered. But why not? he wondered. His instincts  
screamed at him that this was a ghost, and to put as much distance between it and himself as  
possible. But deep down, under his panic, a small logical voice said, "But if it's really a ghost, why  
is it a hedgehog and not an echidna?" There had never been hedgehog tribes on the Floating  
Island.

So, as the hedgehog drifted by, about twenty feet away, Knuckles yelled, "HEY!"

The ghost whirled and flung up a hand.

The same greenish-blue light surrounded Knuckles and froze him in place, all of his muscles  
paralyzed. Talon fell backwards with a cry, and the blue light grabbed him, too.

The white hedgehog floated toward them, still with his hand raised. "Who are you?" he asked. His  
voice sounded remarkably flesh and blood, not ghostly and echoing, the way Knuckles had  
expected it to.

Knuckles found that he could still speak, even though the rest of his body was immobile. "I'm  
Knuckles, guardian of this island," he snapped. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Such a question should have been asked with the intruder helpless before Knuckles, not the other  
way around. Knuckles hoped that this being would not notice such a small detail.

The hedgehog floated to their muddy lump of land and stepped into it, the glow around him  
fading away. He became merely a mortal hedgehog with white spines, and now Knuckles could  
see that the hedgehog wore strange bracelets and gloves that were looped and entwined with  
some sort of greenish-blue thread. The hand raised toward them was decorated heavily with it,  
and it all glowed.

"I'm Silver," said the hedgehog. "I'm here because ..." He frowned. "Because ..." He paused and  
looked around the swamp. "I don't remember." He returned his gaze to Knuckles and Talon. "If I  
let you go, you won't hurt me, will you?"

"Depends on if you deserve it," said Knuckles. But his fear was draining away. From Silver's  
voice and the way he spoke, he guessed that he was not very old. Perhaps only the same age as  
Talon.

Silver shrugged. "Worse has been said." He lowered his hand, and the paralyzing glow faded from  
Knuckles and Talon. Talon stumbled to his knees, then stood up, keeping almost behind  
Knuckles, but not quite. Knuckles motioned to him. "This is my son Talon. We're not used to  
seeing strangers here, especially ones with force field gloves."

Silver smiled and held up both hands, flexing his fingers. When he smiled, his youth suddenly  
broke through. He could not have been older than fourteen. "Oh, these things don't do anything.  
They just have crystal conductors to boost my psychic output. I'm telekinetic. That's how I was  
flying along like that--I didn't want to wade through the swamp and stuff."

"So what are you doing here?" Knuckles asked again.

Silver's smile faded. "I knew when I got here. But I can't remember now. I'm looking for  
someone."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Looking for someone?"

Silver opened his hands and gazed down at them, as if he expected them to hold some clue. "I'm  
from another time," he murmured. "Something happened. But I don't remember what. I need to  
find someone."

Knuckles glanced at Talon. The anteater looked wary and nervous, but not nearly as frightened as  
a moment ago. Talon said softly, "So, what time are you from?"

Silver looked at Talon blankly. "I don't know. It's like waking up from a dream. The longer I'm  
here, the less I remember."

Great. A white hedgehog with amnesia. Knuckles groaned inwardly and wondered what Zephyer  
would think if he brought home a white-spined telekinetic hedgehog. The last hedgehog with  
white spines had been more trouble than he was worth.

"Are you in any sort of danger?" Knuckles asked. "Like, if I took you home, would you put me in  
danger?"

Silver shook his head. "No, not anymore." He paused. "I know that much ... a huge disaster has  
been averted. But I don't know anything else."

Knuckles sighed. "Come on, then."

Zephyer was sitting in the swing on the front porch when Knuckles, Talon and a ghostly stranger  
trooped in across the lawn. She watched them with a sigh of resignation. Where did Knuckles find  
these people? One would think that living on an island two thousand feet in the air would cut  
down on surprise visits.

As they climbed the steps and entered the glow of the porch lights, Zephyer was struck by the  
white hedgehog's face. He was quite young, but something had aged him recently. There were  
dark circles around his eyes and severe lines on either side of his mouth that spoke of terror  
mastered only through force of will.

"This is Zephyer, my wife," said Knuckles. "Zephyer, this is Silver."

Silver ducked his head in almost a bow and shook her hand. "A pleasure, Zephyer. You live on a  
beautiful island."

"Thank you," said Zephyer, flattered. At least this one was polite. She rose heavily from the  
swing. "Come in. Have you eaten dinner?"

Silver looked thoughtful. "...no, I haven't."

"We already ate, but there's plenty of leftovers," she said.

Dinner had been several different types of fruit mixed into a salad. Silver poked it around his plate  
for a few minutes before he had the nerve to taste it, but after that he ate as if famished. Knuckles  
and Talon had smaller portions to keep him company, mostly picking out their favorite bits from  
the bowl. Zephyer sat at the table with them, leaned back in her chair with her hands folded on her  
large belly. Silver was too polite to comment, or perhaps too busy eating, so Zephyer said, "I'm  
due in a few weeks. Our other friends are in and out of here all the time to check on me. Do you  
know Sonic?"

Silver raised his head and stopped chewing, eyes glazing. "Sonic," he murmured. "Yes, I know  
Sonic. Blue hedgehog?"

Knuckles nodded. "He's here so much, you'd think he lived here. Hang around long enough and  
you'll see him. How do you know him?"

Silver stared at the tabletop. "It's all jumbled. I know we've met, but I'm not sure if it's in this time  
or not. I would be ashamed to meet him now." He paused. "Is there a hedgehog named Shadow in  
this time?"

"Yeah," said Knuckles. "Black with red stripes?"

"Yes," said Silver. "And ... and another, with gray stripes. Mephiles. Do you know Mephiles?"

"Doesn't ring a bell," said Knuckles, and Talon and Zephyer shook their heads.

Silver resumed eating, and there was a moment of silence. Talon ventured, "Why would you be  
ashamed to meet Sonic?"

Silver did not answer for a moment, but his cheeks flushed. He chewed and swallowed  
deliberately, then said, "I was ... I was sent to kill him."

Knuckles, Talon and Zephyer straightened.

Silver sat up straighter, correctly reading their cold expressions. "But I didn't! I couldn't. Can't.  
Mephiles lied."

"This Mephiles person told you to kill Sonic?" said Knuckles. "Why?"

Silver looked vague. "I wish I could remember."

After that Knuckles watched Silver very closely for signs of being a killer. Having spent lots of  
time around Metal Sonic and Shadow, he figured he could recognize it--a particular sort of  
hardness. But Silver baffled him. As the conversation turned to other topics (Silver asked what  
made the island float), all Knuckles sensed in him was a childlike simplicity. There was something  
naive and innocent about Silver. This kid had been sent to kill Sonic? They had asked the wrong  
hedgehog. It sounded like Mephiles, whoever he was, was the real trouble.

After Silver was finished eating, Talon said, "Want to come play some games? The chao got some  
new ones, and that's why you haven't seen them."

As they rose from the table, Silver asked, "What's a chao?"

As Talon and Silver disappeared into the other end of the house, Knuckles looked at Zephyer.  
"What do you think of him?"

She drummed her fingers on the table and gazed thoughtfully at the doorway where Silver had  
gone. "He's too nice to kill anybody. But did you notice his face? He's been through something  
bad lately. I think he's injured somehow."

"Maybe that's why he has trouble remembering things," said Knuckles. "It's like selective amnesia  
... there's something he's forgotten and he knows things outside of that."

"Trauma," said Zephyer. "If he's really from another time, I wonder why he's here, now. Maybe  
something to do with the time-warp itself wiped his memory."

"I wonder if the Time Rippers know about this," said Knuckles. "Anybody from other times  
showing up in ours is bad, because it affects the time stream. I wonder if Silver knows that?"

"I wonder who he's looking for," murmured Zephyer.

In the rear bedroom, Talon introduced Silver to Chimera and Zinc. Chimera was a dark brown  
chao with four spiky horns growing from the top of his head, and looked quite dragonish. Zinc,  
on the other hand, was a smooth, glossy silver, with two horns growing from the middle of his  
forehead. The pair of them were sitting on a large square mat on the floor which was painted with  
runes and lines. Hovering above it at varying heights were small crystals, arranged into phalanxes  
and other formations.

"Hi Silver," said Zinc. "You're white, not silver."

"I know," said the hedgehog. "My mother said that I had a heart of sterling silver, so that's what  
she named me. What are you doing?"

"WAR!" said Chimera, with relish. "See, the red pieces are my armies, and I've already captured  
two of Zinc's settlements. I have better units than he does."

Silver gazed uncomprehendingly at the floating crystals and the game board.

Chimera waved a paw over a set of symbols, and a group of his red crystals moved forward and  
fired small bursts of red energy at Zinc's blue crystals. The blue crystals fought back and managed  
to knock three of Chimera's pieces out of the air (to the cheers of the onlookers), but in the end,  
Chimera's stronger units destroyed Zinc's and moved into the circle they had been hovering over.

"It's an ancient echidna game that Knuckles found somewhere," said Talon. "Want to play?"

Something about the game distressed Silver. He looked in horror at the fallen pieces, and shook  
his head, backing away. "No thanks. I can't ... destroy things like that."

"It's not real," said Talon, frowning. "You can't really hurt the crystals."

"I don't want to play," said Silver.

"Let's go to my room, then," said Talon.

Talon's room was down the hall. A model ship hung from the ceiling over the bed, and shelves  
along the walls were covered in rocks with engravings, broken crystal fragments, seashells and  
other things. Talon picked up a lump of green crystal and held it out for Silver to look at. "This  
glows when it's going to rain."

Silver examined it carefully, then stepped up to look at the other objects. "You have a neat room,"  
he remarked. "Are you adopted or something?"

"Yeah," said Talon, looking at the carpet.

Silver nodded. "I wondered how two echidnas could have an anteater. I only ever knew my mom.  
My dad got killed by Iblis when I was three."

Talon looked up. "Who's Iblis?"

"A monster," said Silver carelessly, opening his hand and moving the crystal back to the shelf with  
his mind. "Or, he was. Or is. No, he's ..." He flinched and rubbed his forehead. "I can hardly  
remember Iblis anymore, either. What is wrong with me?"

"Are you from the future?" asked Talon.

"I'm from the present," said Silver. "This time is the past."

"So you're from the future," said Talon, nodding. "How far?"

"Two hundred years," said Silver, sitting on the bed and running his hand across the quilt. "Iblis  
wrecked everything. This time is so beautiful. It's why I came back. And so I could find ...  
someone." A frown creased his forehead. "Maybe I came back too far. Do you know if Solenna  
has had their festival yet?"

"I don't even know where that is," said Talon. "We could ask Knuckles, though."

A moment later, Talon and Silver were in the living room, and Knuckles was looking thoughtful.  
"Solenna? That'd be in East Mobius. I don't know anything about a festival, though."

Silver sighed, and even the feathery fur on his forehead drooped. "Ah well. I'll have to find out  
tomorrow." He yawned.

Knuckles motioned to the shredded couch. "Want to sleep there? I can get you some blankets."

"Sure," said Silver. "Thanks. It was a long flight up here, and my mind's tired."

"Why'd you come here, anyway?" asked Knuckles.

Silver was silent a moment, gazing out a dark window nearby. "I thought I'd find them here."

Knuckles glanced at Talon, shrugged, and went to dig some blankets out of the hall closet.

Talon looked at Silver and said softly, "I came here because it's safe. Maybe whoever you're  
looking for is here, hidden."

Silver nodded, dejected. "I just wish I could remember."

Flame.

Silver stood on the edge of the abyss, looking into the heart of the fire. The heat beat against his  
body in waves, and he had to shield his eyes to keep them from being flash-dried. Down there, in  
the lava and fire, was Iblis, the Flames of Disaster. "I've come to stop you," Silver whispered.

Beside him stood a violet cat, her robe blown away from her slender body by the wind the fire  
created. "Silver," she said, "can you do this?"

"I have to do it!" Silver exclaimed. Gripping a glowing gem in either hand, he stepped to the edge  
of the abyss and yelled, "Iblis! Come forth!"

The lava bulged upwards and slowly, lazily, rose into the head and arms of a demon--a demon  
made of molten rock. It fixed its white-hot eyes on the puny white hedgehog who had called it,  
and its jaws opened in a belligerent grin.

Silver closed his eyes and siphoned his mental power through the chaos emeralds. They flashed to  
life at once. "Iblis, it's time to seal you away!" he yelled.

The demon raised a hand and slashed at Silver. As the hand touched the hedgehog, however, it  
turned ghostly and transparent, passing harmlessly through the hedgehog's chest. But Silver  
flinched. His eyes opened. "Come on!" he yelled.

Again Iblis swiped at Silver, and again Silver flinched as if the blow had landed. It felt as if his  
insides were being burned to ash. He coughed and smoke came out. "Why isn't it working?" he  
exclaimed, losing his focus. The chaos emeralds began to fade, as well as the power that kept Iblis  
from actually landing a blow.

The violet cat pushed Silver aside and grabbed the emeralds out of his hands. "Here, let me," she  
said. "I'm already on fire inside." She turned to face Iblis, the Chaos Emeralds igniting in her  
hands. Iblis reached for her ...

Zephyer had to get up several times a night to answer nature's call, due to being pregnant. On her  
way back from one of these trips, in the small hours of the morning, she thought she heard a  
sound in the living room. Cautiously she tiptoed down the hall and peered in.

Silver was asleep on the couch. He had kicked off his blanket, and as she watched, he rolled one  
way, then the other, face screwed up as if he was experiencing terrific pain. Then he threw his  
arms up in front of his face and whimpered, "Don't take her, no, take me, take me ..."

It was so pathetic that Zephyer felt a lump in her throat. She moved forward to wake him up, but  
Silver gave a huge twitch and fell off the couch. "Ouch," he said in a loud, everyday voice. When  
he did not immediately get up, Zephyer circled the couch. "Are you all right?"

Silver lay on the floor on his side, tears streaming silently down his face. When he saw Zephyer,  
he hurriedly wiped them away and sat up. "I'm fine," he said. "Just a nightmare."

Zephyer sat on the couch and looked down at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Silver gazed up at her, and his eyes were the color of amber. Then, in a very childlike way, he  
leaned against her knee and sighed tearfully. "I rescue her every night," he whispered. "It should  
have taken me, not her. I hope she can forgive me, wherever she is ..."


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Silver came to breakfast with the shadows under his eyes more pronounced than ever. Zephyer looked at him anxiously.

Knuckles didn't notice Silver beyond a quick hello. He had brought his laptop to the table, and sat with it beside his bowl while he ate. Zephyer rolled her eyes at it but said nothing. Knuckles had been following the Black Arms threat for the last week, ever since the aliens had cut all contact with Mobius's politicians.

Zephyer fetched a bowl of cereal for Talon, as he padded into the kitchen, then sat down with her morning cup of tea. "What's the latest?" she asked her husband.

"Looking bad," said Knuckles. "They've gone into geosynchronous orbit over Sapphire City, and the experts are talking about an invasion."

"Are we in danger?" asked Zephyer, studying her coffee cup.

"Not yet," said Knuckles. "Although if they're like any of the other factions on this planet, they'll look for centers of chaos power and locate the Master Emerald. Then they'll come after it." He heaved a sigh. It was tough being the guardian of the planet's most powerful chaos gem. "I'm thinking about hiding the island in the South Island chain. There's a lot of chaos energy down there, and it would camouflage the Master Emerald's signal. Not to mention the Floating Island would blend in with the other islands quite nicely."

"Oh boy, we'd have a beach again," said Talon.

Knuckles nodded. "I'm just hoping Sonic doesn't ask me for help ... the last thing I need is to leave the island undefended." He looked anxiously at Zephyer's belly.

She shrugged. "I'm not due for another few weeks, Knux. Don't worry about me."

Knuckles rose and almost tripped over Chimera, who had perched himself beside Knuckles's ankle. Chimera dodged out of the way. "Are the aliens coming?" he asked eagerly. "Can I be a dragon again? Please please?"

"Read my lips," said Knuckles. "No."

"Awww!" exclaimed Chimera, following Knuckles to the refrigerator. "Why not? I'll be good! I won't burn down any forests!"

"Remember what you did last time?" said Knuckles.

"I wouldn't really have tried to eat you," said Chimera.

"No," said Knuckles. He pulled out a slice of coconut and handed it to the chao. Chimera bit into it and chewed, staring reproachfully at Knuckles.

Silver pointed a finger at a pitcher of juice and it floated across the kitchen to his hand. "He can turn into a dragon?" he asked, pouring himself a drink.

Knuckles tried to act as if telekinesis was a normal part of breakfast. "Yes, chao can evolve to bigger forms with Chaos Emeralds. But Chimera is banned from ever using them again." He glared at Chimera. "Got it?"

Chimera stuck out a coconut-coated tongue.

"Sir, if aliens come here, to the Floating Island, what do we do?" asked Talon.

Knuckles shrugged. "We don't know anything about them at this point. Best thing to do is go to Hidden Palace and shut down the teleporter network. While Zephyer and I are here, nobody will get near the Master Emerald." He returned to the table, closed the laptop, tucked it under one arm and walked out of the kitchen. Chimera jumped up into Knuckles's seat, scrambled onto the table, and sat there, eating the last of his coconut.

"Where's Zinc?" Zephyer asked him.

"I killed him in his sleep," said Chimera.

"Did not," said Zinc, bouncing into the kitchen. "I'd kill you back if you did."

Zephyer started to stand up, but Silver said, "Don't worry, I'll feed him." He moved his hands as if opening the refrigerator, and the door opened. He levitated out another slice of coconut and floated it down to Zinc. Zinc took it without batting an eye. "Cool trick," he said, nibbling it.

"It's not a trick, it's just chaos power," said Silver.

"What other kinds of things can you move?" asked Talon. "Could you move a car?"

"Sure," said Silver. "Bigger things, too. Size doesn't make much difference. But I don't think I could move something as big as the Floating Island. For one thing, I can't really grasp it in my mind. I think the Master Emerald must shield it or something. How big is the Master Emerald, anyway?"

"Oh, about as big as the table," said Talon.

Silver's eyes lit up. "Can I see it?"

"Absolutely not," said Zephyer. "Only a few people are ever allowed into Hidden Palace, and only Knuckles and I can control the Master Emerald." She rose to her feet and Zinc scrambled into her chair. "When Knuckles comes back," she said, "tell him I'm in the orchard." She picked up a basket from the counter and walked out.

Silver looked at Talon. "What do you want to do?"

Talon grinned. "Can you fly like you did yesterday?"

Silver nodded. "Sure, easy."

"Good, because so can I." Talon held up one foot, and showed Silver the power-crystal sole of his shoe.

The two dashed outside and spent the morning swooping over the Floating Island. Silver's telekinetic flight taxed him, and once in a while he had to land and rest. Talon, on the other hand, could fly for hours. But the two landed and explored various areas on the island, like the Marble Garden ruins, and the pyramid in Sandopolis.

At one point Silver paused, breathing the wind in his face. "Is the island moving?"

"Yeah," said Talon. "Knuckles is taking us south." He frowned and looked anxiously at the sky. "He must be sure that the aliens are going to attack."

"What aliens, anyway?" asked Silver. "I've never heard of them, so you guys must beat them in this time."

That cheered up Talon. "Well, they showed up in this ship called the Black Comet and started telling Mobius to surrender. Mobius won't do it, and the human colonies even threatened the aliens. So now it looks like war. You've really never heard of all this, huh?"

"No," said Silver. "But then, so much was destroyed when Iblis came ... when you have to fight to stay alive every day, you don't have time to study history." He absently rubbed the side of his head. "That almost reminds me of something ... but it's gone now."

Knuckles kept the island moving all day long. He navigated from his usual perch atop the highest mountain peak in the island's center, the Master Emerald miniature simulacrum in his outstretched hand. When his arm grew tired, he sat and rested his elbow on his knees.

His laptop kept him company. He kept an eye on the news, reading all the ins and outs of Mobius's political machines as they prepared for war. The human colonies were the most brazen in their opposition of the Black Arms. Knuckles figured that they would be the first to go. Humans loved war and were extremely good at it, and thus, if you planned to invade Mobius, you had to eliminate them first. Knuckles planned to be well south of the colonies by tomorrow or the next day. Once the island descended into the region south of the Fear Islands, he usually had to deal with head winds, which slowed down travel. Right now he had a steady crosswind from the west, which pushed him toward the mainland if he didn't pay attention.

The day crept by. Knuckles watched the shadows spread across the eastern half of the island as the sun sank. Toward four o'clock, his communicator chirped. He picked it up. "Yeah?"

"Heya Knux," said Sonic's voice. "How's it going?"

"Can't complain," said Knuckles. "You been watching the news?"

"Yeah, looks pretty bleak. I'm chilling just outside Sapphire City right now. They're evacuating, but nobody really knows what to expect with these aliens."

"I'm taking the Floating Island down south," said Knuckles. "I know a few places where it'll be less conspicuous."

"How's Zeff?"

"Same old." Knuckles paused, wondering whether to bring up Silver. "Actually ..."

"What?"

"Do you know any white hedgehogs?"

"White?" Sonic sounded bewildered. "No, they normally don't come in white, unless they're Shadow after Mecha was done mecha-fusing him. Is that who you mean?"

"No," said Knuckles. "This white hedgehog kid showed up, and he has one of the strongest chaos auras I've ever seen. He has telekinesis, and I mean serious power here. He can move anything. I don't think he even knows how powerful he is."

"What's his name?"

"Silver."

"No last name?"

"Not that he's said."

"Huh." Sonic was silent a moment. "Never met anybody like that ... I'm sure I'd remember." His voice cheered up. "Can I come out and meet him? Say, tonight?"

"Sure," said Knuckles, rolling his eyes.

So it was, as the sun sank below the horizon and Knuckles stopped the island for the night, Sonic appeared in a flicker of chaos energy on Knuckles's front lawn.

Zephyer peered out the kitchen window as she chopped pineapple. "Well well, look who's here."

Talon, Silver, Zinc and Chimera were all sitting at the table, watching Silver float utensils around the kitchen and make furtive stabbing motions at Zephyer's back. Every time this happened, the whole table went into muffled giggles, and Zephyer said, without turning, "Stop it, Silver."

"How does she know?" Silver asked in astonishment.

Sonic arrived in the doorway and halted, staring at the mass of floating forks, spoons and knives. He looked at Silver, who had one hand raised with his fingertips glowing a faint blue.

"You really are telekinetic," said Sonic.

Silver looked up, saw him, and lost his concentration. Silverware rained to the floor. Without turning, Zephyer said, "And now pick all of those up."

Silver just stared at Sonic in wide-eyed horror. "Sonic ... I, uh ... I made a mistake! You weren't the Iblis trigger like he said! I never did it!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" said Sonic, blinking. "I've never seen you before."

Some of the fear left Silver's face. "Oh. Right, this is the past. It must be before we met."

"You're from the future?" Sonic asked, finally stepping into the room. He bent and picked up the nearest few forks. Silver made a sweeping motion with his arm, and the other utensils gathered themselves into a bunch and swooped up onto the counter.

"Yes," said Silver. "But I can't remember much about it. We changed the future, you see."

Sonic tossed the forks on the counter with the rest and pulled out a chair at the table. "How far in the future are you from?"

"About two hundred years," said Silver. He described how Iblis had appeared and was attacked by Perfect Chaos, the ocean god. Between the two of them, they laid waste to most of Mobius. The only reason anyone survived was because the chaos field made extreme improbabilities, like survival, into probabilities.

"Sounds like a pretty lousy future," remarked Sonic. "Do they all have hair like that?" He motioned to Silver's fan-like spines on his forehead.

Silver grinned and ran his fingers through them, trying to flatten them. They immediately sprang up again. "No, my spines just grow this way. It always drove my mom nuts. She said I look like my head's exploding."

Zephyer brought a big bowl of fruit to the table and sat down with a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you two are getting along. Sonic and Mekion never got along too well."

"Who's Mekion?" asked Silver.

"Shadow's robot half," said Sonic. "Come to think of it, Shadow and I never got along real well, either."

The front door opened and Knuckles entered. "I'm back, Zephyer," he called. "Is Sonic here yet?"

"No, I got held up in traffic," Sonic called.

Knuckles stepped into the kitchen. "Good, you're here. I'm starved." He sat down at the table and the group turned their attention to dinner.

After most of the food was gone and they were starting to feel full, Knuckles asked, "So, what's the latest on the aliens?"

He and Sonic launched into a discussion about the Black Arms, speculation on what they looked like, things they had read about their mothership, and ways Mobius was preparing for them.

"Too bad they're not peaceful, like the humans," said Silver.

Knuckles laughed. "Humans? Peaceful? Don't you know what the Great War was all about?" Then he remembered who he was talking to. "Wait, no, you probably don't. The humans wanted to claim this whole planet, and it was only after the Great War that they finally agreed to stick to the land we gave them and live alongside us."

The conversation turned to chaos power and how it might affect the aliens. Humans were immune to chaos power, good or bad. But nobody knew if these beings were any different. The popular theory was that only natives to Mobius could use chaos power, seeing as chaos was unique to Mobius. But other people contested that, saying that as more and more humans were born on Mobius, they were becoming more and more attuned to the chaos field. Silver backed this up by pointing out that in his time, there were so few people left that all of them had incredibly strong chaos powers.

Then dinner was over. Sonic excused himself, saying that he needed to go home and check in with Sally. When he left, the party mood went with him. Knuckles stood at the front door, gazing anxiously out into the twilight. Zephyer went to him and put an arm around his waist. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about the Floating Island," he said. "From what Sonic said, I think we have less time left than I thought."

"Are you going to pull an all-nighter, then?" she asked.

Knuckles nodded. "Or as long as I can make it. I don't want to fall asleep driving. Could you make me some coffee?"

"Sure," said Zephyer. She returned to the kitchen, frowning. She had been ordered by the doctor not to worry about anything, because it was bad for the baby. But she couldn't help but feel concerned. If Knuckles was upset, then the threat must be very great indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Morning found the Floating Island south of Sapphire Bay and nearing the northmost fringes of the South Island chain. The South Islands were a cluster of small volcanic islands that sprinkled the ocean like freckles. The ocean was warm and shallow, but here and there it dipped into deep underwater valleys, some deep enough to take the Floating Island's miles of draft. Knuckles had meticulously mapped the islands and measured the water's depth, just in case he needed to conceal the Floating Island. In fact, he had hiding places for it all over the world. His paranoia had served him well before, and he was glad of it now.

As the sun rose, Knuckles stood at his navigation perch in the island's center with a telescope, three maps held down with rocks, and his laptop with a moving map tracking their exact location. He kept yawning, his eyes felt sandy, and his shoulders ached from holding the miniature Master Emerald out for so long. He kept promising himself bed once the island was safely concealed. The island was about forty-five minutes from a landing place, and he wanted to land it before too many people were awake.

The ocean and smaller islands crept by below. Knuckles rubbed his eyes with his free hand. Blast the Black Arms.

Finally his laptop map showed that he had reached the right coordinates.  
Knuckles cupped his left hand over the top of the emerald in his right hand,  
and slowly pressed down. The island began to descend. Knuckles watched the horizon, estimating their speed and distance. This was the hardest part. He raised his left hand away from the emerald, slowing them. He slowed until the island was hardly moving at all, and it touched the ocean at a snail's pace.  
Slowly, carefully, he lowered the whole land mass down into the sea,  
displacing the sea in waves. He could see it beating on the surrounding islands in unnaturally high surf. If he had lowered the island any faster, he might have wiped out the other islands with tidal waves. Not a good way to befriend the neighbors.

He stabilized the island with the Master Emerald, then rolled up his maps and closed his laptop. Time to get some sleep.

* * *

Zephyer woke him late that afternoon. "They're here," she said.

Knuckles sat up groggily in bed. The sunlight slanting through the window blinds told him it was nearly evening. "Who's here?"

"The Black Arms," said Zephyer. "They apparently attacked Sapphire City right after you hid the island. I just checked the news and it's going crazy up there."

Knuckles sprang out of bed and groped for his shoes. "Any news from Sonic?"

"No," said Zephyer, looking anxious. "But one news report said that Shadow has been seen cooperating with the aliens, and he's to be shot on sight."

"Oh great." Knuckles pulled on his socks and buckled on his shoes. Then he dug into the closet and emerged with his razor-sharp shovelclaws. They enabled him to dig through solid rock and kill almost anything. "Do you think Shadow would really do that?"

"I don't know him very well," sighed Zephyer. "But why would he work with aliens at all?"

"I need to talk to Sonic," Knuckles muttered. He dashed out of the room and found Talon and Silver huddled over his laptop in the living room. Talon looked up, eyes wide. "They're destroying Sapphire City, sir. They've just begun hitting the other colonies, and they're destroying all the satellites.  
Rumor has it that the online network will fail soon."

Knuckles commandeered the laptop and began reading furiously. There were now pictures of each kind of alien. They were humanoid, walking upright on two legs, with two arms and a head. But they lacked mouths and had only huge bulbous eyes. Some were small, only five feet tall, while another sort were gigantic, over fifteen feet tall, and carried heavy rocket launchers. Still another type looked like a cross between a bat and a manta ray, and acted as air units. Their informal names had been given as Black Warriors, Black Oaks,  
and Black Hawks.

"I guess they have to call them something," Knuckles muttered.

Silver's eyes were as wide as Talon's. "Those things are so ugly! They remind me of Iblis, sort of."

Zephyer hurried into the room, communicator in one hand. "Knuckles, it's Sally. She has some questions."

"Sure." Knuckles took the communicator and walked into the kitchen with it.  
"Sally, this is Knuckles."

Zephyer stood and looked at the computer screen with her hands folded on her stomach. "It just figures. What a time to be worrying about a new baby."

"Where will you go, if all the hospitals are destroyed?" Silver asked.

"Knothole," said Zephyer. "I've been visiting the doctor there my whole pregnancy anyway. They can at least deliver babies."

Knuckles re-entered the living room, a black look in his eyes. "The Black Arms are excavating ruins out in the Great Desert. Nobody knows why. Sally's asked me to go investigate."

Zephyer said nothing. She only went to Knuckles and hugged him, then went to retrieve a portable teleporter unit from a closet. Knuckles took a whetstone off the mantle and began to sharpen his shovelclaws, looking grim. "Guess I'll get to see the Black Arms up close. You two watch out for Zephyer, you hear me?"

"What if the aliens come here, sir?" asked Talon.

"Go to Hidden Palace, like I said," said Knuckles, buckling on his claws.  
"Nothing can reach you there. And Zephyer can activate the island's defenses.  
If it comes down to a fight ..." He took a small key down from a doorframe and tossed it to Talon. "That opens the locked door just outside the palace."

Talon's eyes widened still more, and a slow grin spread across his face.  
Silver looked questioningly at Knuckles, then at Talon, but said nothing.

Zephyer returned with the portable teleporter. It was a blue lens the size of a dinner plate with four sharp metal arms that planted into the ground to stabilize it. Knuckles tucked it under his arm and kissed Zephyer goodbye.  
Then he went out in the front yard, calibrated the teleporter, stepped on it,  
and disappeared in a flash of light. The teleporter beamed itself after him a few seconds later.

Zephyer stood at the front door, gazing at the place where Knuckles had been.  
She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "He'll be all right," she said.  
"He's been in worse situations." She turned and smiled bravely at Talon and Silver. Then she went back to her room to lie down.

As soon as they were alone, Silver asked softly, "What's the key for?"

Talon grinned again, a fierce, eager grin that was quite unlike him.  
"Knuckles's weapon cache. In case of enemy attack."

Silver's eyes widened. "And he just gave it to you?"

"Yep." Talon looked at the key. "Want to go look at the cache?"

"But I'm not allowed to go to Hidden Palace," said Silver.

"This is outside Hidden Palace," said Talon. "Come on!" He burst out the front door and dashed for the inter-island teleporter. Silver followed.

Silver had never used the teleporters before. The main one was at the edge of Knuckles's front yard, near the road. It was an extra-large teleporter with a lens three feet across. It was six inches high, and its blue crystal base was carved with beautiful scrollwork and ancient Echidna writing. A knob on one side controlled its destination. Talon just jumped on the teleporter and let it carry him off in a beam of light. Silver stepped on the teleporter after Talon vanished and shut his eyes as the light bathed him. He felt a strange rushing, as if he was flying at high speed, then the light drained away. He opened his eyes.

He was standing on a receiving plate in a tall, dim cavern. Light came from a tiny opening far overhead. Talon was hurrying across a polished marble floor toward a small door in the far wall. Silver followed him, looking around.  
There were two doorways, one leading into the receiving room, the other leading out. Beyond each was misty blue dimness. Silver wished that he was allowed to explore this place ... the dimness was mysterious and fascinating.

But Talon had unlocked the door and stepped into the room beyond. "Silver, you have to see this," he called. Silver hurried across the room and entered the weapon cave.

It was a small room, lit by clusters of glowing blue crystals in the corners.  
But every inch of the walls were lined with weapon racks. Silver saw all sorts of weapons that he had never seen before. He recognized the firearms, but a long tube-like thing defied identification. "What's this?" he asked, touching it gingerly.

"A bazooka, I think," said Talon, peering closely at an open box of grenades.  
"Where did Knuckles get all of this?"

"I don't even know what most of this is," said Silver. "Is the Master Emerald that valuable?"

"Yes," said Talon. "Everybody wants it. It controls the Chaos Emeralds and moderates the global chaos field."

Silver had no response to that. He didn't want to touch any of these weapons.  
Neither did Talon. He walked around and looked at them, but after feeling the cold metal a few times, he kept his hands to himself. Finally he turned to Silver. "Okay, I've seen enough. Let's go." His black and white-striped face was drawn. Seeing the weapons showed him how many ways there were to kill someone, and Talon didn't enjoy violence. Not after losing both his parents to it.

They retreated from the room and locked the door. They returned to the surface on another teleporter, and walked up to the house in silence.

As they entered, Zinc met them at the door. "There you are," he said.  
"Something's wrong with Zephyer."

"What?" said Talon.

"I don't know," said Zinc. "She's acting really weird. Can you help her?"

Talon and Silver hurried to Zephyer's room with Zinc trailing behind,  
muttering about how he wished he had a chaos emerald right about now.

Zephyer was standing with her arms above her head, leaning against the wall and breathing deeply.

"Zephyer?" said Talon. "What's wrong?"

"I'm in labor," said Zephyer between breaths. "Which just figures. Right as Knuckles leaves, too."

Talon and Silver looked at each other. "Wh--what do we do?" asked Talon.

"Could you please get my bag from the closet?" Zephyer asked, lowering her arms and turning. She was very pale, and sweat ran down her forehead. "I need to get to Knothole, quick."

Silver and Talon did as she said, and escorted her out to the teleporter.  
Zephyer told Talon how to set the teleporter to Knothole's coordinates. Then she said, "You two stay here. Somebody has to look after the island while both Guardians are away. I should be back in a day or two. This baby isn't going to wait much longer." She took her bag and stepped onto the teleporter, vanishing in a flash of light.

Talon, Silver and Zinc stared at the empty teleporter for a moment. "Well"  
said Silver, "what do we do now?"

Zinc looked up at them innocently. "Want me to show you where the cookies are hidden?"

* * *

Talon, Silver, Zinc and Chimera sat on the front porch in the twilight,  
surrounded by empty packages that had once held cookies.

"I've always wanted to have cookies for dinner," said Chimera, munching.

"Me too!" said Zinc. "I wish I could have gone with Zephyer. I wonder how she is. Think it'll be a boy or a girl?"

"Girl," said Silver.

"Boy," said Talon.

"Whatever it is," said Chimera, "Knuckles better not play with it more than he does me. I'll bite it and make it cry."

Zinc slapped him up the back of the head. "Don't you dare." Chimera snarled and jumped on Zinc, and the two chao rolled around on the porch, hitting and biting.

Silver held his stomach. "I've never eaten so many sweets before." He looked at the half-eaten cookie in his hand, and carefully set it on the porch railing. "I, uh, think I'd better go inside." He rose, levitated Zinc and Chimera out of his way, and hurried inside.

Talon was sitting on the porch railing lengthwise, his legs stretched out along the railing and his tail hanging over the side for balance. He grinned as Silver retreated, then returned to gazing out across the yard at the dusky woods in the distance. It felt strange to be alone on the Floating Island with no guardians. The whole place was so vulnerable now. Talon could not activate the island defenses if aliens came. It gave Talon the sense of standing at the edge of a cliff with no railing between him and disaster.

The new baby made him feel the same way. When Zephyer came home, life would change. There would be someone new to take up Knuckles and Zephyer's attention. Talon wondered if Knuckles would treat him differently now that he had a kid of his own. An adopted kid wasn't the same as a blood kid; at least,  
Talon didn't think so.

There were no lights on in the house. Talon and Silver had been watching the sun set, and now Talon was enjoying looking at the stars with no light pollution. Zinc and Chimera tired of their scuffle and threw themselves into the patio chairs, panting. In the sudden quiet, Talon heard a distant humming sound. He straightened and pricked his ears. Chimera and Zinc noticed his movement, and sat up, too, heads tilted to one side as they listened.

The humming grew louder. It came from high up in the sky.

Talon slipped off the railing and crouched behind it on the porch. Peering through the bars, he watched as a single red light floated overhead, moving in a straight line. It slowed and stopped half a mile away, and sat in the sky,  
motionless.

"What is that?" whispered Zinc.

"I don't know," Talon whispered back. "Aliens?"

"What are they doing on MY island?" growled Chimera, sounding exactly like Knuckles.

"Shh," said Talon, because the light began to move again. It moved off toward the island's center, slowly at first, then accelerating until it was out of sight.

The screen door opened, and Silver stepped out on the porch, his forelock standing up even more than usual. "I saw it out the window," he whispered.  
"What was that?"

"I don't know," said Talon, slowly standing up. The fur stood up all over his body in waves. The terror of seeing something so completely unknown was setting in. And no Knuckles for protection! Talon gripped the porch railings with sweaty hands and stared at the mountain in the island's center, almost invisible in the dark. "It's still here and we can't do anything about it."

"I could try to crash it, I suppose," said Silver doubtfully. "But my telekinesis only works on things I can see properly. I can't just grab a light. I'd only get part of it."

"Maybe it didn't know we're here," said Zinc. "It did fly away."

"But why is it here?" said Chimera. "If it's after the Master Emerald, I'll go to ultimate form and trash it, I don't care if ultimate's off-limits."

Talon said nothing, but gazed hard into the distance. He thought he could see a distant red light floating across the mountainside. It was searching for something. His thin semblance of bravery collapsed. He wanted to run and hide.

"Everybody, grab some blankets," he told them. "We're going to Hidden Palace."

* * *

Silver could not stand the Master Emerald.

As soon as he set foot in the emerald chamber, he felt the enormous amount of chaos energy emanating from the giant gem, and it almost knocked him down.  
When he tried to look at the Master Emerald, all he saw was the glow of his own telekinesis magnified a thousandfold. It was like looking into the sun.  
Silver had never realized that his own chaos field left him vulnerable to any powers greater than his own.

He had to roll out his sleeping bag in the antechamber with the teleporter.

Talon and the chao were making their beds on the dias beneath the Master Emerald when they noticed that Silver was not with them. Talon found Silver lying on his sleeping bag in the darkness of the outer cave. "Silver, come in here with us."

"I can't," said Silver. "The Master Emerald is too powerful. It makes me sick." It was a statement of fact.

Talon blinked at him, then said slowly, "All right. I guess we can all sleep out here, then."

The four of them spent an uncomfortable night on the cold marble floor in a corner of the antechamber, to avoid a draft from the far doorway. Zinc and Chimera slept separately on pillows that served them as beds. Talon wished for his own chao, Max. Max was reassuring to have nearby when Talon was afraid,  
because Max was ferociously protective of him. Without Knuckles around, Max was the next best thing. But without either of them, Talon was left to rely on himself. He curled up in a tight ball and called on all of his acting training not to cry.

Silver lay in the nearby sleeping bag, gazing at the distant ceiling and feeling the distant throb of power from the Master Emerald. It disturbed him,  
like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard in the distance. He wanted to get away, maybe go back to the house. But no, there were aliens outside. It gave him a shivery feeling. He hazily remembered living in fear of Iblis, who could erupt from the ground anywhere at any moment, but that was different.  
These were more like predators who were hunting them. He burrowed further into his sleeping bag and shut his eyes. He began to drift toward sleep, and memories teased the edges of his consciousness. A familiar presence beside him as he faced Iblis ... a friend who questioned Mephiles's orders ... who was it? What was their name? He couldn't catch the memories, and followed their elusive dance down into slumber.

* * *

In the morning, Talon rose before the others were awake, tiptoed to the teleporter, and changed its destination to one of the units up in the mountains. He retrieved a pair of binoculars from the weapon cache, and took the teleporter outside.

It was a clear, cool morning. The teleporter was on a rock ledge beside a path that wound its way further up the mountain. Trees grew at the foot of the cliff, almost at Talon's feet. He breathed the fresh breeze and raised his binoculars.

The Floating Island lay in shades of blue and green all around him, filled with birdsong and life. He scanned from horizon to horizon, and there was no sign of a UFO. He wished that he could use the Master Emerald like Knuckles to detect intruders, but since he couldn't, binoculars would have to do.

He stood for a long time on the clifftop, watching the island. The sun rose and bathed the island in warm color. It was strange to see other islands all around, and a horizon that was so near. Talon thought he could even hear the distant boom of surf.

At any rate, there were no aliens. Talon returned to the teleporter and rode it back underground. Silver was awake, standing ten feet from the sleeping bags and frowning at them. They were slowly rolling themselves up, as Chimera and Zinc watched with interest. Talon stood and watched, too. The sleeping bags rolled up completely, and their strings tied themselves around them in neat bows.

Chimera and Zinc clapped. Silver smiled and blushed. "It's nothing special,  
really," he said. He turned to Talon. "Where were you?"

"I was checking for aliens," said Talon. "I watched and watched, and I didn't see any. I think it's safe to go back."

Silver picked up the sleeping bags and pillows with a sweep of his hand, and floated them to the teleporter as Talon reset it. Then they all stepped on it one at a time.

The house was exactly as they had left it. Silver dropped everything on the living room floor, and they swarmed into the kitchen to get breakfast. Zephyer had left them several containers of chopped fruit in the refrigerator, as well as some day-old bread. They fell on the food and devoured it. Cookies had not been very filling after all.

The food reminded them of why Zephyer was not there. "I wonder if she's had the baby yet?" asked Zinc with his mouth full.

"I'll call her and ask," said Talon, wiping his mouth. He dashed out of the kitchen, grabbed the communicator and returned, setting it to Zephyer's frequency. After a moment, it clicked and Zephyer's voice said, "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Talon," said Talon. "Did you have the baby?"

"I laid the egg," said Zephyer, sounding amused. "It will hatch in another day or two. I'm staying here until it does because the doctor wants to make sure the baby is all right."

Silver stared at Talon and whispered, "What does she mean, she laid an egg?"

"Echidnas do that," said Chimera, sounding bored.

"Everything's fine, otherwise," Zephyer continued. "How are things on the island?"

Talon drew a deep breath and wondered whether to tell her about the UFO. He decided he probably should, so she'd know about it if Knuckles didn't come back for a while. "Well, last night we saw this weird light fly over the island. Like a UFO. We slept in Hidden Palace."

"Wait, what?" said Zephyer. "Back up. What did you see? Describe it."

Talon detailed the UFO's color, sound, and how it moved. Zephyer asked a lot of questions, and finally fell silent, digesting the news. "You're probably right," she said. "The patrol ships around the South Islands have blue or green lights, and they usually circle. And they don't make noise. It may have been a Black Arms scout."

Having his worst fears confirmed did nothing to restore Talon's frail confidence. "Wh--what should we do?" he asked.

"Keep an eye out for more," said Zephyer. "Call me if something else shows up,  
and I'll try to get word to Knuckles. If worst comes to worst--" She broke off, as if regretting what she was about to say. "If worst comes to worst,  
give Zinc and Chimera a Super Emerald."

Zinc and Chimera whooped in glee.

"I heard that," said Zephyer grimly. "Chimera, you are not to eat anyone,  
understand?"

"Yeah, whatever," said Chimera.

"And Zinc," said Zephyer, "I know you haven't been in large form in a long time. You take care of Talon and Silver. And don't let anything get near the house."

"Yes ma'am," said Zinc, saluting at the communicator.

"I'm going to go now," said Zephyer. "Call me if anything else happens."

"All right Zephyer, bye," said Talon, and the communicator clicked off.

"Even if no aliens come," said Chimera, "can I still use a Super Emerald?"

"Me too!" said Zinc.

"What happens if they do?" asked Silver. "I don't understand what you're so worried about."

"When you give a chao a chaos emerald," said Talon, "they get bigger and change shapes. Chimera turns into a dragon and Zinc is a big robot echidna thing. The more emeralds they have, the bigger they get. I think a super emerald puts them to about a three or four, right?"

"Right," said Zinc. "With a chaos and a super both, we can go all the way to Ultimate form. That's seven."

Silver stared at the chao with new respect. "Wow. I'd like to see that."

"We have pictures!" said Chimera, jumping off his chair. "Come look!" He dashed out of the kitchen. Zinc followed and so did Silver, looking curious.

Talon was left alone in the kitchen. He stood a moment, looking at the messy table. Then he went to the pantry and took the remaining bread, a jar of jelly, and a large bag of dried mango strips. He dumped all this into a basket and carried it out to the teleporter. If they had to make a break for Hidden Palace, they would need something to eat.

* * *

Nothing happened for the rest of the day. The four settled into boredom, and as the hours stretched on with no sign of an alien ship, they decided that the aliens had given up. Chimera and Zinc took Silver swimming, and were amused to find that not only could Silver not swim, but he was terrified of the water.  
He crouched on the bank above the swimming hole and refused to even dip in a toe.

Talon was restless. Instead of going swimming, he prowled along the edge of the forest away from the house, following it out toward Marble Gardens. He had been around the others so much that he felt he needed to get away from them.  
He couldn't get the UFO out of his mind. If the aliens had given up, why had they examined the island so closely?

Out in the quiet of the woods, he was able to think clearly. He paused to watch a bright green bird with a long tail fly from one treetop to another,  
and wondered if the aliens had invaded yet. If they were sending in scouts, it had to be soon. Would they come here? Of course they would, especially if they detected the Master Emerald. Too bad everyone didn't react to it the way Silver did. Talon thought of all the times it had been stolen, or nearly stolen. He needed to tell Knuckles about all this.

But what should he do about an alien invasion? Zephyer had told them to go to Hidden Palace, but there was the house to worry about. Talon didn't want anything to happen to all their stuff. He imagined the house burning down .  
that would get rid of the terrible old green couch, anyway. He grinned.  
Zephyer had been trying to get rid of it since she and Knuckles got married,  
but Knuckles wouldn't part with it.

He walked until the trees began to thin, and he saw the stone ruins in the distance. Then he turned and retraced his steps with a sigh. It was so boring around here without Knuckles and Zephyer.

They ate dinner that night on the front porch, this time varying the cookies with toast and some rapidly-over-ripening fruit.

"I like it here," Silver remarked. "It's peaceful. Soleanna is really crowded,  
and it's always noisy."

"What's in Soleanna?" asked Talon.

"Oh, it's a big city," said Silver. "Humans, Mobians ... it's near the ocean,  
so there's lots of canals and rivers. Boats go everywhere."

"Sounds ... nice," said Talon, although he thought it sounded awful. He hated crowds.

"Yeah," said Silver, leaning on the porch railing and looking at the stars.  
"Do you think the aliens will come back tonight?"

"I hope so!" said Chimera.

"I don't know," said Talon, looking troubled. "If they come back and try to capture the island, I don't know what we'll do."

But no UFOs appeared. Eventually the four went back inside and slept in their beds. Silver took the couch again and fell asleep wondering what had made the jagged tears in its upholstery.

Talon slept badly. He tossed and turned, kicked the blankets off, and woke up repeatedly to check the sky for strange lights. By dawn he was exhausted. His clock said four-thirty, but he was sick of being in bed, so he pulled on his shoes and crept outside.

The lawn was gray with dew, and the sky was the greenish color between night and day. A few stars still shone high up in the west. Talon whispered the activation phrase for his shoes. They ignited, and he flew up into the sky. He figured he could scout the whole island by breakfast if he hurried.

The aliens were in Sandopolis.

Talon spotted movement out in the sand, and landed on top of the pyramid. He had brought the binoculars from Hidden Palace, and they showed him a large disk-shaped craft out in the desert, near the rocky foothills. Small humanoid figures moved around it. Talon recognized them from the pictures on the internet. Black warriors.

He felt almost relieved. He realized now that he had known all along that they were here--it was just a question of where they had landed. Did he have Guardian instincts? Maybe everyone became attuned to the Floating Island if they just lived there long enough.

The aliens were making small scouting forays up into the hills. As Talon watched them, he realized what they were doing. They were looking for caves.  
Oh no, that's all he needed--for aliens to get down to Lava Reef. Hidden Palace was defended by the lava channels, but surely the aliens would figure out the maze eventually.

Talon flew back to the house, flying low and keeping rocks, trees, and other obstacles between himself and the aliens. He didn't want a laser in the back.  
Or whatever weapons these creatures used.

The sun was just climbing over the rim of the world as he arrived back at the house. The windows were dark, and indoors was warm silence that breathed of sleep. As Silver was the closest, Talon woke him up first. "Silver," he whispered, poking the hedgehog's shoulder, "the aliens are here."

Silver opened his eyes and blinked at Talon, then sat up. "What? They are?  
Where?"

"In the desert," said Talon. "Eat something, I've got to get the chao up."

"What are we going to do?" Silver asked, bending over to pull on his boots.

"We're going to defend the Floating Island," said Talon with more resolve than he felt.


	4. Chapter 4

When Talon woke the chao, Chimera's reaction was to jump out of bed and do a dance. "Aliens! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Grow up," Zinc snarled at him. "They could probably kill us all without blinking."

"Well, we're going to find out how much they bleed," laughed Chimera, running toward the kitchen.

Talon rolled his eyes and followed him with Zinc pattering at his heels.  
"Talon," said Zinc softly, "what if they come here, to the house? What if they blow it up?"

"We won't let them get close enough," said Talon grimly.

There was not much fresh fruit left for breakfast. Despite being bored all day the previous day, none of them had done any chores, notably the one that involved picking more fruit for future meals. They ate hot cereal boiled haphazardly on the stove, and disguised the too-sweet taste of the overripe pineapple and mango with it.

"The aliens are in Sandopolis," Talon told his friends as they ate. He picked at his breakfast, himself. His stomach had curled into a knot and he could hardly get anything down. "They're looking for the tunnels that go down to Lava Reef. Once they get there, Hidden Palace isn't hard to find."

Chimera grinned, showing all his teeth. "Well, I'm going to crush them, set them on fire, and make them suffer."

"Giving you a Super emerald is a bad idea, you know," said Zinc.

Chimera stuck his tongue out at him. "Zephyer said I could, so there!"

"What do you want me to do?" asked Silver.

"Collect rocks," said Talon.

Silver looked confused. "Rocks?"

Talon tapped his forehead. "Mind bullets."

Silver's face lit up. "Oh yeah!"

Ten minutes later the four of them snuck out of the house and down to the teleporter. No aliens in sight so far. They warped down to Hidden Palace, and Talon escorted Zinc and Chimera into the emerald chamber. Silver waited outside, but peered in through the doorway in curiosity.

The Master Emerald sat on a six-foot wide pedestal in the center of the room.  
Seven pedestals ringed it, each topped with a glowing gem the size of a bicycle tire. One pedestal was empty, Silver noticed.

Chimera ran to the pedestal with the red Super Emerald, and Talon grudgingly lifted him up and set him on top of it. Chimera flopped face-down on the gem's top and tried his best to hug it. "Oh yes, you beauty," he crooned, "give me that power!" He melted into white light at once. He expanded and stretched, a tail sprouting, legs and arms lengthening, neck stretching out. When the light faded, Chimera had transformed into a maroon dragon the size of an elephant.  
He looked down at himself and unclenched his claws from around the Super Emerald's pedestal, which was now empty. "Oh YEAH!" he bellowed.

"Amateur," snorted Zinc. Talon set him on top of the white Super Emerald. Zinc knelt and stroked its top without speaking. His body vanished into white light, too. He grew until he was fifteen feet tall, with long, heavy legs and arms. When the light drained away, he was a giant silver robot with an echidna head. His two horns had become long jagged blades.

Chimera grinned at Zinc. "Wanna see who'd win in a fight?"

"Please," said Zinc, turning and walking toward the exit. He had to drop to all fours and clumsily crawl out through the doorway. Silver backed away and stared with awe and new respect.

"You're such a klutz," sneered Chimera. "Watch this!" He lunched forward, hit the floor on his belly, tucked his arms and legs to his sides, and slid over the smooth floor and right out the door.

"Showoff," said Zinc, stepping on the teleporter. He teleported, but the beam seemed to have trouble moving him. There was a five second delay before he actually vanished. Undeterred, Chimera jumped on the lens immediately afterward. Talon and Silver watched with interest as all of him vanished into the light, even his long tail.

"I wondered if it would get cut off or something," said Silver.

"No such luck," said Talon. "Come on. And don't get too close to Chimera. He tried to eat Knuckles last time."

"But isn't Knuckles like his parent?" asked Silver, shocked.

Talon nodded. "It was a really bad fight. Chimera hasn't had an emerald since then." He stepped onto the teleporter, and Silver followed him.

On the surface, Chimera had spread his wings and was shaking them out. They were as wide as his body was long, and the membranes were marked with black stripes. "Ooo, pretty," said Chimera, inspecting both. He jumped in the air,  
beating his wings, then fell and landed on his hind legs. "I need to get the hang of this again," he growled. He tried a running start, leaving deep footprints on the lawn, and this time managed to stay airborne for a hundred feet. One wing clipped a tree and he crashed to the ground. They watched him struggle to his feet, roaring, "I'm all right!"

"Now who's the klutz?" said Zinc softly, and Talon and Silver snickered.

Talon looked at Zinc's knee joint, which was level with his head. "How is it possible for you to have bolts?" Talon asked him. "You're not man-made."

"I just look like it," said Zinc. "It's kind of like being made of armor. The nice thing is, I can take loads of damage, and I won't feel it until I turn back into a chao."

Talon suddenly wished that he had the green chaos emerald handy.

"Hey, want a ride?" said Zinc, crouching down. Talon looked at Silver,  
shrugged, and climbed up on Zinc's broad shoulder-plate. Silver climbed onto the other one, and Zinc stood up with a grin. "Let's go, shall we?"

His first step almost jarred Talon loose. He grabbed onto the edge of the plate and hung on. Each of Zinc's footsteps felt like sitting on a jackhammer.  
Talon looked over at Silver to see the hedgehog quietly levitating himself an inch above Zinc's shoulder. Lucky.

After a few minutes, Talon gasped, "Thanks Zinc, I'll just fly." He hardly had enough breath for the activation words, but once his shoes lit up and he stepped onto the air beside Zinc, he felt much better. He flew along beside the robot, panting. Zephyer had never ridden with Zinc, and he thought he knew why.

They cut across the hills north of Marble Gardens, aiming for the mountains above Sandopolis, where the aliens were working. Chimera kept practicing flying, until Zinc asked sarcastically how he would fight aliens when he was too tired to move. After that Chimera stayed on the ground. He walked ahead of them, and every time they neared the crest of a hill, he slunk to the top to see if the aliens were in sight.

At last there came a hill that Chimera where sat still and ducked low, and did not move as they caught up to him. "There they are," he growled.

Silver, Talon and Zinc climbed just high enough to see over the hilltop. In the distance the desert plain stretched away to the edge of the Floating Island, all sand and scrub brush. The mountains here were barren and rocky,  
starting up out of the desert floor in great tumbled mounds. Parked among the rocks was a disk-shaped ship about fifty feet long. Moving to and fro in a line from it to the mountains were aliens. The four Mobians were close enough to see the aliens' bulbous, insectoid eyes, their black, scaly skin, and their oddly red hands and feet. Their line stretched up into the rocks, where they had already beaten a path. Somewhere out of sight was a rumble of falling rocks and a growl of machinery.

"They're digging," said Zinc.

"Let's take out their ship," said Chimera, baring all his teeth in a grin. "I wonder how they taste?" Before anyone could stop him, he bounded off the hilltop, spread his wings, and glided down toward the ship.

The nearby aliens spun and stared at him. Some unslung weapons from across their backs and aimed them at the dragon.

Silver squinted.

The alien weapons bent in half. A glowing purple substance spurted from each one, and the aliens dropped the broken weapons and jumped back from the purple stuff in dismay.

"Plasma," said Zinc, nodding. "Don't let them hit you. It's a superheated liquid-like stuff, and it'll melt right through you."

Chimera landed on top of the ship, drew a deep breath, and blew a red jet of flame down onto the ship's top. Nothing happened. He drew another deep breath and blew more fire on it.

"Armor's too thick," remarked Zinc.

"If he wasn't sitting on it, I could knock it off its landing gear," said Silver.

Talon pointed at the ship's underside. "Look, more are coming out." A door had opened from the ship's belly, and more aliens were swarming out like angry ants. These aliens were accompanied by another sort, these almost as big as Zinc, and carrying long, zig-zag energy swords and thick tubes that looked quite like bazookas.

"My turn," said Zinc, lifting Silver off his shoulder and setting him on the ground. He strode over the hill and down toward the aliens. Some of the big ones--Black Oaks, Talon remembered--turned to face Zinc. Others ran off and stood at a distance, aiming their bazookas at Chimera.

Chimera laughed at them. He leaped into the air, beating his wings, then dropped into the midst of the Black Oaks. Hand to hand fighting broke out, and Chimera roared in excitement. He slashed aliens with his claws, whipped their feet out from under them with his tail. He reared up on his hind legs, grabbed one Oak by the head, and bit down.

A second later Chimera flung the alien away with an outraged scream. He opened and closed his jaws rapidly, drooling and shaking his head.

"Think they're poisonous, like a toad is?" asked Talon.

"What's a toad?" asked Silver. He had an intense look on his face,  
concentrating fiercely on something. Talon looked around to see what Silver was moving, and jumped. Floating up behind them, hidden from the aliens' view by the hill, was a floating rockslide. Hundreds of rocks, ranging from pebbles to boulders, were floating toward them like a fleet of balloons. Jagged, heavy balloons.

"Get down," said Silver, sweat trickling down his muzzle.

Talon dropped flat, and the rocks sailed over his head in a cloud. Sliver gathered them at the crest of the hill, both arms stretched out in front of him. Then he waved his hands, and the rocks scattered, each one pelting toward an alien.

The large rocks knocked the smaller aliens down. The Black Oaks were knocked staggering, and a few dropped their weapons. The flying pebbles tore through their leathery hides like bullets. Talon stared in disbelief as glowing yellow blood oozed from their wounds. Where it fell to the ground, it smouldered and smoked. "What are they, acid?" he said.

Silver wiped the sweat off his face, making his wild hair stand up more than usual. "I don't know. That should have killed them."

Chimera leaped on the nearest wounded Oaks and knocked several of them down.  
At the same time, Zinc strode into their midst, swinging his metal fists.  
Talon squinted. It looked like Zinc's hands had become sword blades. Aliens ran from him and whirled to fire weapons at him. Plasma splashed his torso,  
and he roared in pain as his armor melted. Smoke wreathed him, along with the odor of hot metal.

"Silver, look," Talon hissed, pointing. The alien spacecraft was lifting off,  
its door closing and feet lifting to tuck into the seamless paneling.

"Oh no you don't," growled Silver. He thrust both hands at it. The ship lurched backward and tipped, its edge scraping the ground. It nearly flipped onto its top, but fired all its stabilizers and managed to pull itself level again.

Three of the Black Oaks had finally noticed Silver and Talon. They raised their bazookas and aimed.

"Silver, look out!" Talon yelled, pointing.

The bazookas fired. Silver whipped up both hands, and the rockets halted five feet away from them. He waved. The rockets flipped around toward the Oaks who fired them.

"Wait Silver," said Talon, "shoot them at the ship."

Silver grinned. He turned the rockets and hurled them at the UFO like a handful of darts. They impacted on the rim.

To their complete surprise the ship exploded. Purple fire burst from it all along its edge, the rest of the explosion held inside by its own armor. Zinc and Chimera both bolted clear, knocking over aliens as they went. Silver and Talon dropped flat and covered their heads as ship fragments flew over them,  
bouncing across the ground.

When they looked around again, the ship was burning and producing a huge plume of black smoke, and the aliens nearest it were lying around it on the ground,  
probably dead. There were only ten aliens left, all small ones, and one Black Oak. They stared at their burning ship for a moment, then turned and ran for the mountain.

"Should we stop them?" asked Silver.

Talon slowly climbed to his feet. "No, leave them be. We can worry about them later. Zinc and Chimera are hurt."

* * *

Knuckles arrived home that evening.

The moment he set foot on the Floating Island, he knew that there were intruders on it. The island all but screamed it at him. He dropped to one knee as the energies of the Master Emerald poured into him, making him dizzy.

"Okay, okay!" he said aloud. "I get it! Let me get up, at least!"

Gradually the assault faded, and the red echidna was able to rise and shake his head. "Good grief," he muttered, walking up toward the house. "I'll check in after I see how Zephyer ..." He trailed off. The house was dark, the front door half open.

He bounded up the porch steps and yanked the door open. Three days spent fighting aliens had him ready to see his entire family murdered, and perhaps Black Arms lounging in the living room. But the house was empty. He dashed from room to room. People had been here lately ... the living room was piled with blankets and sleeping bags. The kitchen table was strewn with dirty dishes and crumbs. Talon's room was a disaster, as well as the closet that the chao used as a room. Where was everyone? Had the aliens come and taken them?  
No, that was impossible. Zephyer never would have let it happen.

The only way to find everyone was to use the Master Emerald. It could show him the location of anyone on the island, including intruders.

He hurried back outside and down to the teleporter plate. He stepped on it and waited. Nothing happened.

He smacked his forehead. How many times had he told Talon to go to Hidden Palace and shut off the teleporter network? Fortunately, being the Guardian,  
he knew the override code. He crouched, fumbled for the dial on the side of the teleporter, and turned it left and right several times, as if opening a safe.

The lens lit under his feet. He stood up straight and beamed down to Hidden Palace. As the entry cave appeared around him, Knuckles took a step forward and froze. He was eye to tooth with Chimera, who was in dragon form and snarling.

"It's me, stupid!" he yelled.

Chimera tilted his head and looked at Knuckles with one eye, still snarling.  
Then he backed away and sheathed his fangs. "Oh, Knuckles! Sorry. I was supposed to watch in case an alien came down."

Knuckles put his hands on his hips. "You're a dragon."

"Yeah, isn't it great?" said Chimera, arching his neck and stretching his tail and wings. "I'm not full-size, but ..."

"You're a DRAGON," said Knuckles, tapping one foot.

Chimera pointed at the emerald chamber with one claw. "Talon let me. Deal with him."

"I will," said Knuckles, stalking toward the emerald chamber. "Keep guarding the teleporter. I had to turn the network back on."

Knuckles stepped into the emerald chamber, intending to berate Talon, but the words died on his lips. Zinc had transformed into a giant silver robot, and was draped across the Master Emerald, almost hiding it from view. His silver armor was scorched and missing in some places, revealing the sinew beneath.  
There was no blood, but Knuckles knew that if Zinc returned to chao form with wounds like that, he would bleed to death in seconds.

Talon dashed into view. "Put your arm down on this side," he said. Zinc lowered one arm and touched the Master Emerald. Talon touched his arm and laid one hand on the Master Emerald. Knuckles knew what he was trying to do.  
Talon's unique Chaos ability was one of healing, but Talon had to have a Chaos Emerald to use it. The Master Emerald's power worked for no one but a Guardian.

Talon tried anyway. He shut his eyes and tried to draw on the power, so near and yet so inaccessible. Knuckles watched, interested. He had never seen anyone else ever try to actually use the Master Emerald--even Sonic had never tried it. Zephyer, naturally, didn't count.

After a while Talon opened his eyes. "Did you feel anything?"

"No," grunted Zinc. "It all still hurts."

Talon sank to the floor and rested his head on his knees. "I can't do it," he whispered. "I need Knuckles."

Knuckles walked up and knelt in front of him. "Hey," he said.

Talon looked up. Then his face lit up and threw himself on Knuckles in a hug.  
"Oh sir, you're home! It's been so terrible!"

Knuckles hugged Talon, wincing as the anteater's grip chafed fresh bruises.  
"Yep, I'm back, and just in time, it looks like. What's been happening?  
Where's Zephyer?"

Talon let go and stood up. "Zephyer went into labor right after you left.  
She's in Knothole. She said she laid the egg all right, and they're waiting for it to hatch before she comes home."

Knuckles nodded, suddenly torn between the desire to dash off and see his wife, and the need to deal with the situation on the Floating Island.

Talon launched into a description of the UFO and the aliens, and of how he had given the chao the Super Emeralds, and how Silver had fought the aliens with his telekinesis. Knuckles listened, looking up at the injured Zinc and slowly becoming more and more impressed. The kids had handled things well.

Talon's story wound down. "And they were hurt, so we came back here to try to heal them. Chimera's not hurt too bad, just burned the inside of his mouth, so I was trying to fix Zinc first. But I can't use the Master Emerald at all.  
And the green Super Emerald is gone."

Knuckles stepped up to the Master Emerald and laid a hand on it, just under Zinc's arm. He held out his other hand to Talon. "Here, let me help this time."

Talon laid one hand in Knuckles's, and touched Zinc.

Knuckles was amazed at the amount of power Talon drew through him. It actually made the Master Emerald flicker. Talon poured all of it into Zinc,  
concentrating fiercely, as if fueling the healing with his own frustration at not being able to touch the power before now. Zinc sighed. "Oh, that feels good. I don't think I'll die now."

In less than a minute Zinc's wounds had sealed over with silver metal,  
although his plate armor did not return. Talon let go of Zinc and Knuckles at the same time. To Knuckles's surprise, the power kept flowing into him,  
healing the bruises and cuts he had received from fighting aliens and robots.  
He stood a moment and let the healing complete its work. Why had he never tried this before? Of course the Master Emerald would heal its Guardian. Duh!

Zinc shrank back into a small silver chao, and looked comically tiny sitting high atop the Master Emerald. He carefully climbed down, and called, "Hey Chimera! Your turn!"

"Am I in trouble?" asked Chimera, peering through the doorway.

"No, not now," said Knuckles. The healing had filled him with a calm, peaceful feeling. He didn't feel remotely angry at Chimera anymore. "Come on, it won't take long."

Chimera slithered through the doorway on his belly and lowered his head so Talon could touch his nose. Talon again linked hands with Knuckles, and gave Chimera a strong dose of power. Chimera opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Much better. It all felt kind of numb before. The aliens are made of lava!"

"Something close to it, anyway," said Knuckles, as Talon broke the link and stood rubbing his hands, as if they tingled.

Zinc looked around. "Where's Silver?"

"Standing guard," said Talon. "Silver took ... I think ten machine guns and some grenades up to the palace entrance."

"Why there?" asked Knuckles.

Talon looked at the floor. "Because we think the aliens got into Lava Reef.  
The ones we didn't kill."

* * *

The gates of Hidden Palace were at the end of a long stone corridor cut through black basalt. The gates themselves were twenty feet high, carved from blue and green crystal and engraved with flowing Old Mobian script.

Silver sat on a lump of rock outside the gates, surrounded by a cloud of floating weapons. Each gun covered the tunnel from a different angle, and the grenades lay on the floor halfway down the tunnel, where Silver could pull their pins and use them as remote-detonated mines.

He was nervous and twitchy. He had been on guard for almost two hours, and being alone up here with nothing but his weapons for company was lonesome and frightening. And the tunnel had an annoying habit of creaking now and then, as if the island were having small earthquakes. Silver knew about earthquakes. He also knew that being underground during an earthquake was a very bad idea. But this was a Floating Island! How could it have earthquakes? Maybe he was hearing digging aliens. So he stuck to his post, nervousness rising.

At last he heard footsteps on the marble floor inside the palace. Thank goodness, Talon was back. Silver let all the guns gently down on the ground as Talon poked his head around the edge of the gate. "Hello Silver. Knuckles is back!"

Talon stepped out, and Knuckles followed him. Silver had never been so glad to see the red echidna. He jumped up and shook Knuckles's hand. "I'm so glad you're here! Does the island have earthquakes? I keep hearing weird sounds."

"They're not really earthquakes," said Knuckles, looking at the guns lying on the floor, then out at the tunnel. "The island's heart is molten lava because of the concentrated amounts of chaos energy in Hidden Palace. The lava also keeps the island from cracking apart. Kind of like renewable glue. But the heat causes a lot of shifting in the rock, and that's probably what you're hearing."

"Why doesn't the island just melt?" asked Silver.

Knuckles walked away down the passage. "All other questions must be submitted in writing," he called back. "Nice of you to leave my grenades on the floor like this. They were expensive, you know."

"I was going to use them as landmines," said Silver, as he and Talon hurried after Knuckles.

"Good idea," said Knuckles. "Make sure you bring the guns."

Silver motioned at the weapons, and they whisked into the air and followed them in a cloud, clanging as they bumped each other.

"I checked the Master Emerald," Knuckles told Talon and Silver as they fell into step beside him. "There's eleven aliens in Lava Reef. They've holed up in one of the crystal mines, and they seemed to be feeding on the lava there.  
It'll be a fight to dig them out."

"Why not just collapse the mine, sir?" asked Talon.

"Too valuable," said Knuckles. "All of the mines are."

Silver looked at Knuckles's gleaming shovelclaws. If Knuckles had dug an entire mine himself, then it was no wonder that he didn't want to destroy it.

They reached the end of the tunnel, which was a dead end. Or at least, it looked like one. Knuckles moved up to the wall and stepped sideways, out of sight. Talon and Silver walked up and saw a narrow crack in the rock that wound sideways and upward. Knuckles inched through the crack and said over his shoulder, "It's a squeeze, but you can make it. Silver, be careful with the guns."

Talon and Silver were smaller and thinner than Knuckles, and they passed through the crack without getting stuck at all. The crack was twenty feet long, and in places the rock was jagged and broken where Knuckles had had to dig it open. But at last they emerged in the bottom of a black ravine in the floor of a huge cavern. Knuckles led them along the ravine several hundred feet to a deep crack in the wall with a sloping floor. They climbed out of the ravine there, and finally reached the cavern floor. Silver looked around in amazement, and almost dropped the weapons. The cavern was at least a mile across, supported by rock pillars like enormous trees. It was lit with a red magma glow from the other end of the cavern, and the ceiling shone with glowing blue crystals. It made the cavern a dim purple place that was quite hot.

Knuckles walked to the cloud of guns, inspected them, and took a rifle. Silver let go of it and watched as Knuckles pulled out the clip and inspected it.  
"Still loaded, good," said Knuckles. "The mines aren't far, and I want you two to stay behind me. Silver, can you move the guns so they're ahead of me? I don't want to get shot in the back."

"Okay," said Silver, waving a hand. The guns zipped over to float in front of Knuckles. Knuckles nodded and smiled. "Good. C'mon."

He led them into a passage in the cavern wall. This passage was lit by glowing green crystals, and it twisted this way and that until Silver and Talon lost all sense of direction. Now and then they passed a vent that blew fresh air into the passage.

After a while the tunnel widened out into a long, low-ceilinged room. Knuckles pressed himself against the tunnel wall, motioned for them to stay back, and carefully peered into the room. After a moment he backed away from the entrance and whispered, "The big one is standing guard. Stay back down the tunnel."

Silver and Talon retreated to a bend fifty feet back down the tunnel, and watched anxiously as Knuckles raised the rifle and took aim. They covered their ears and waited.

Gunshots in a stone passage are even louder than outdoors. Covering their ears did nothing to block the sound. What was worse, all they seemed to do was make the alien on guard angry. They heard it bellow, and then the tunnel shook with crashes and thuds. Knuckles charged out of the tunnel into the room.

"Do we go help?" Silver whispered.

"He said stay here," said Talon.

They listened to the sounds of battle as Knuckles and the alien fought.  
Finally they couldn't stand it anymore, and crept forward just enough to see into the cave.

The alien was the remaining Black Oak, and it was bleeding burning yellow lava from wounds in its head. This only seemed to have maddened it, for it was swinging at Knuckles with a broken stalactite and trying to trample him with its wide feet. Knuckles ducked and dodged, and once in a while darted in and dealt a bone-cracking blow to its knees.

"Silver, there's lots of loose rock," Talon whispered.

Silver nodded and studied the rocks. Most were small, and from the way they looked, probably not heavy. But that stalactite in the alien's hands ... that looked heavy.

Silver waited until the alien drew back its club for an extra-hard swing at Knuckles, then Silver grabbed the club with his mind and yanked. The alien held on. Silver yanked harder, lifting the alien off its feet. It roared and hung on.

"I have an idea," said Silver, staring at the alien without blinking.

"Knuckles, come back!" Talon yelled.

Knuckles stared up at the hovering alien, then ran back to the tunnel.  
"Silver, what are you doing?" he panted.

Silver didn't answer. He held out one hand and slapped it sideways. The alien careened into the wall. Then Silver slammed it into the opposite wall. The alien reeled. Silver ripped the club out of its hands and broke it over the alien's head, and the Black Oak finally collapsed.

Knuckles and Talon watched the motionless alien for a moment. "Nice work"  
said Knuckles.

Silver was shaking. He leaned against the wall and hugged himself. "I've never done that before," he murmured. "I don't like grabbing people and hurting them. It makes my power feel evil. I could do that to anybody. I could kill both of you, even." He shuddered.

"You don't have to fight any more, Silver," said Knuckles laying a hand on Silver's shoulder. "You've done more than enough. You and Talon can wait here while I deal with the others."

"No!" Talon and Silver exclaimed at once. "We fought them together once already," said Talon. "Right?"

"Right," said Silver, standing up and clenching his fists to steady his shaking hands. "We're going to help you, Knuckles."

"All right," said Knuckles, gazing at Silver a moment. "But no more telekinesis while we're down here. You could collapse the whole place."

"Yes, I could," said Silver, and left it at that.

They crossed the low room and entered the tunnel on the far side. The walls grew increasingly rougher, and side passages branched off the main one. Most were dark, but a few were lit with yellow or blue light. The main passage was lit with green crystals all the way down.

Knuckles stopped and held up a hand. Talon and Silver stopped, too. Somewhere nearby was the sound of tapping or hammering, and the grumbling, guttural sounds that the Black Arms made to communicate. Silver looked at his floating cloud of guns, selected a grenade, and floated it into Knuckles's hand.  
Knuckles nodded and tiptoed down a side passage, toward the sound.

The passage made a sharp bend, and ended at a rough hollow where ore and crystal had once been mined. Packed into this hollow were all ten aliens. They were all hard at work clawing and beating at the rock, and to Knuckles's surprise, they were boring into the stone as quickly as if they had tools. He watched in bewilderment as from time to time they opened mouths that he had not known they had, and took bites of the stone. No, not the stone .  
crystal. Any crystal they unearthed, they devoured.

As he watched, they ate away four feet of rock, then stopped, removed the supports on the far wall, and began eating the rock in that direction. They were hollowing out a new cavern as quickly as he could, and stripping the rock of anything valuable. They were also weakening the tunnel the more space they opened up without supports.

Knuckles retreated to Silver and Talon and explained what the aliens were doing. He handed the grenade back to Silver. "No explosions," he told him.  
"They've taken down the structural supports, and an explosion would bring it all down on us."

Talon stared at Knuckles, wide-eyed. Talon had been to the mines with Knuckles, and he knew how paranoid Knuckles was about cave-ins. Knuckles used three times as many supports as was necessary, and some of the mines had collapsed anyway, usually when the island was in motion.

"Silver, hand me one of the automatics," said Knuckles.

Silver looked at his cloud of weapons a moment, then offered them all to Knuckles. Knuckles grabbed one and said, "I see we'll have to give you some weapon training, Silv."

Talon took one of the pistols and looked at it. "Sir, the rifle didn't hurt the big one much."

"No," said Knuckles. "Their brains don't seem to be in their heads. If they even have brains. They have more of a hive mind, we think. But there's ten of them in there, and I'm not going in without a little extra punch." He crept down the tunnel and around the bend.

Talon and Silver covered their ears as Knuckles emptied his entire clip into the group of aliens. As they had feared, this only made them angry. The gunshots stopped and the tunnel echoed with grunts, growls, blows and the crash of flesh on stone.

An alien flew out of the tunnel, crashed into the wall opposite Talon and Silver, slumped to the floor and lay still. They stared at it, waiting for it to twitch, and Silver trained all his weapons on it. But the alien didn't move, and its glowing blood slowly darkened to black.

Knuckles bounded back into the tunnel and whirled to face the aliens, fists up, breathing heavily. He was spattered with their burning blood, and it had burned holes in his fur. Talon winced.

Silver stared at the ceiling, not noticing. Slowly he let all the weapons down to rest on the floor.

Knuckles lunged forward and punched an alien in the eyes. It fell back with a hiss, and two more charged forward. Talon watched, wishing that he could fight. But he had never been good at fighting ... had never been good at anything, really, except healing.

Silver slowly lifted one hand toward the ceiling, still staring. Talon followed his gaze and saw cracks snaking across the ceiling. The cracks lit with blue light, and the dust that was trickling from them stopped in midair.

"Sir!" Talon yelled. "The cave is breaking up!" He pointed at the ceiling.

Knuckles had an alien by both arms and was struggling with it. He stopped, the alien at arm's length, and gazed upward. Then he flung the alien away and bolted toward them, yelling, "Run! Run!"

Talon started to run, only to feel a strange floating sensation. He lifted up off the floor and flew forward, down the tunnel to the main passage. There he landed on his feet and turned. Silver had just moved him! He had moved Knuckles, too, because Knuckles was right behind him.

The aliens had noticed the cracks, too, because they were swarming toward Silver. Silver released the roof and flew toward them, the aliens at his heels. But the cracking roof outpaced him, cracks opening all along the passage and snaking into the roof and walls of the main passage.

Knuckles cursed in Old Mobian. The ceiling began to fall in at the back of the mine shaft, right behind the aliens. Dust billowed toward them. Knuckles pushed Talon up the tunnel, and Talon ran, looking back. Knuckles grabbed Silver, who had stopped and was trying to hold the passage up with his telekinesis. Knuckles dragged him along, and Silver kept one hand up, holding up the roof just above them. Rocks were falling all around now, and the roar of falling stone was deafening. The glowing crystals fell and were buried, and the tunnel plunged into deep twilight.

The tunnel shook and Talon sprinted into the small cave where the Black Oak still lay. The dust was so thick that he couldn't see the far tunnel, and he had to stop and feel along the wall. He felt Knuckles's hand on his shoulder,  
and it steered him sideways, into the tunnel. The crash of falling rock was all around, echoing. Talon couldn't tell if it was all caving in or not. He kept running, with Knuckles's hand still on his shoulder.

Knuckles stopped and Talon stopped, too. Silver had stumbled and fallen.  
Knuckles dragged him to his feet, and saw to his horror that Silver was unconscious. Hit by a rock? Knuckles slung him over his shoulder, grabbed Talon's arm, and kept running.

They burst out into the big cavern in a puff of dust, and stood in the open,  
panting and watching the rest of the mine tunnel collapse in on itself.

"That was close," said Talon.

"No aliens made it out," panted Knuckles. "Good." He crouched and slid Silver off his shoulder, stretching him out on the rock. He ran a hand over Silver's head, searching for a wound. But there was nothing. Silver was breathing, but unconscious, eyes rolled back in his head.

Knuckles stood up and looked down at him, then at the tunnel. "You know what"  
he said, "I think he busted his brain trying to keep the roof up."

"Will--will he be all right, sir?" asked Talon.

"Once we get him healed, sure," said Knuckles, picking up Silver with a grunt.  
"Come on, let's get back to Hidden Palace."

* * *

Silver had pushed the ceiling back into place as they ran, but the Floating Island was so big and his power was so small. It sucked his power away from him, even as he poured it into the rock. Knuckles dragged him along and he barely noticed. The cracks were keeping pace with them, outstripping them-  
they were all going to die! Silver pressed the roof back together with all his might, willing none of those rocks to fall.

Then heat washed through his head, from his forehead to his spine. He tripped,  
fell--

And stood before Iblis once more, a purple cat by his side. "I'm all fire inside anyway," she was saying. "Let me!" She took the chaos emeralds from Silver's hands and turned to face the monster.

"Blaze, no!" he cried, but it was too late. Iblis was melting into Blaze,  
pouring into her in a red stream of fire. Blaze shut her eyes and bared her teeth, gripping the chaos emeralds with all her might.

Then Iblis was gone. Blaze stood on the brink of the precipice, glowing red and slightly transparent. She dropped the chaos emeralds at Silver's feet and said, "The only way to make sure he'll never come back is to seal myself away." She stepped off the cliff and floated in midair.

"Blaze, no," Silver cried, his tears making her into a bright blur.

Blaze smiled, which was a rare sight. "Oh Silver," she sighed, "you're so naive. You'll be just fine." The air rippled and she passed through it, out of sight, as if sinking into water.

Then she was gone, and the world changed. Silver saw Soleanna completely repaired, and his world no longer burned, and Sonic lying dead. He saw a small flame go out.

He opened his eyes to see Knuckles and Talon bending over him with anxious expressions. "Blaze," he told them. "I'm looking for Blaze. But she's lost."

"Silver, it's us," said Talon. "Are you okay?"

Silver sat up and flinched. He was lying on the pedestal beside the Master Emerald, and its power scorched him like fire. "Ow. I will be in a minute." He scrambled to his feet and hurried across the cave, away from the Master Emerald. He stepped into the outer cave and stood rubbing his head. He had a vague headache, but it was fading. Talon and Knuckles had followed him,  
Knuckles looking bemused and Talon concerned.

"How did we get out of the mine?" asked Silver. "I think I pulled a brain-  
muscle or something."

"We think you had an aneurysm," said Knuckles. "You broke something in your head, anyway. You were out of it until Talon healed you just now."

Silver shivered. "Thanks, Talon."

Talon smiled shyly. "You're welcome."

Knuckles looked around. "There you two are."

Zinc and Chimera were waiting by the teleporter plate with angelic expressions. "We didn't go near the weapon room," said Chimera.

"Nope," said Zinc.

Knuckles scowled at them. "Get to the surface, you brats."

They obediently jumped on the teleporter and beamed out.

Knuckles strode after them. "C'mon, guys. I've got to go see Zephyer, and you can clean house while I'm gone."

Talon and Silver groaned.


	5. Epilogue

The house was very messy, Talon and Silver discovered. It seemed to take ages to fold blankets, stuff them back into shelves and in cupboards, pick up random toys and books and figure out where they came from. After that they had to tackle the kitchen. The fruit that was not half-eaten had fermented, and they had to haul it all out to the mulch pile in the back yard.

Silver used his hands more than he had in years. Using telekinesis made his head ache, and he was afraid that using it too much would injure his brain again. And if the Master Emerald's power hurt him so badly, how could he trust it to heal him correctly? So he dirtied his clean white gloves and fur helping Talon clean house.

Around nine o'clock that night, Knuckles called to let them know that the egg had hatched, and it was a boy. He, Zephyer and the baby were all coming home.

"What does a baby echidna look like?" asked Silver nervously as they all waited in the living room.

"I don't know," said Talon, equally nervous. "I think this is the first one in, like, forever."

"If it's anything like a baby chao, it'll cry a lot," said Chimera disdainfully. "I know I'll hate it."

Talon sat on the couch, and Silver paced back and forth across the room. He paused behind the couch. "Why is this thing so ripped up?"

"Knuckles used to get mad and tear it up with his claws," said Talon. "I wasn't here then, though. He said it was when he was a teenager and Sonic drove him so nuts."

"Why doesn't he get a new one?" asked Silver, fingering the stuffing that was hanging out.

Talon grinned at Zinc and Chimera. The sofa was a family joke. "He likes this one," said Talon, and left it at that.

The front door opened, and the four spun around. Zephyer stepped in with a blanket-wrapped bundle on her shoulder, followed by a beaming Knuckles. Talon,  
Silver and Zinc hurried over to look at the baby, but Chimera hung back, arms folded.

The baby echidna was a pink, wrinkled thing that was not particularly cute,  
but it was interesting. It looked up at them with enormous blue eyes that shone with wonder and curiosity.

"What's his name?" asked Silver.

"Simoon," said Zephyer. "It's echidna tradition to name the firstborn after the wind. Where I'm from, anyway."

Knuckles smiled. "I get to name the next one."

Zephyer still looked exhausted, and headed for the bedroom. They all followed her, and watched her lay Simoon in the long-vacant cradle beside the bed.  
Simoon cooed and looked around at the cradle.

"He's not crying," Talon remarked to Chimera, who was tentatively peering around him into the bedroom.

Chimera immediately turned his back. "So? It's just a stupid baby. I don't care." He scampered toward his room.

* * *

Talon awoke the next morning to the distant sounds of Simoon crying. He lay and listened until the baby's wails had stopped, then he got up and put on his shoes. He felt as if today the sun had come up in the west. Everything was different now.

He went in the kitchen and got breakfast. As he was eating, Silver came in,  
his hair even more wild than usual. "The baby woke up every hour and cried"  
he groaned to Talon, collapsing into a chair. He waved his hands and summoned cereal with his telekinesis.

Talon watched him. "You head must feel better."

"Oh." Silver looked at his glowing hands. "I totally forgot about that. Yeah,  
I'm back to normal. Except for not getting enough sleep."

"Get used to it," growled Knuckles, walking in and heading for the refrigerator. He rummaged around in it and said, "Did you kids eat all the food?"

"Not all," said Talon. "We brought in some fresh stuff yesterday. It's on the counter."

Knuckles pounced on the fresh fruit and began peeling a mango. "Well, I'm officially a father. And you guys officially have a little brother."

"Not me, though," said Silver.

Knuckles smirked. "You're having to put up with Simoon, so you might as well be. Apparently this phase passes after a few months."

A little brother. Talon hadn't thought of it that way before. First he felt stunned, then he felt warm inside. A little brother! Sort of like a chao, only better.

"So," said Knuckles, bringing his mango to the table and sitting down. "Tell me how you fought the aliens. I want details."

Silver and Talon went through the story again. Zinc and Chimera came in in the middle to add their viewpoints, and even Zephyer and Simoon showed up, Zephyer with dark shadows under her eyes, and Simoon looking like a fat sausage in a nightgown.

Their story branched into Talon's healing exploits in Hidden Palace, and then the harrowing story of fighting the aliens in the mine. Zephyer and the chao had not heard this part of the story, and stared at Knuckles, Silver and Talon in astonishment.

"You're lucky to be alive!" cried Zephyer. "If I had known what you three were out here doing ...!"

"Shh," said Knuckles, patting her shoulder. "We're all fine now, no harm done.  
Except that one of my favorite mines is gone."

"Do you think you'll ever dig it out again?" asked Silver.

"No," said Knuckles. "All those aliens are buried in there, and I don't much want to deal with their corpses. Let them stay there. There's other mines I can work." He sighed.

* * *

A few days later, Knuckles was walking along the river, inspecting the levees,  
when he came upon Talon, sitting alone on a big boulder, watching the water flow.

"Hey," said Knuckles.

Talon jumped. "Oh, it's you, sir. I didn't hear you coming."

"Hard to hear anything this close to the river," said Knuckles, climbing up on the rock. The river made a soothing rushing sound, and while not loud, it did mask most other sounds from the trees behind them.

They sat for a few minutes without speaking, watching the sun glitter in the water. Knuckles waited for Talon to tell him what was wrong. Talon always did,  
if left alone long enough.

After a while, Knuckles's patience paid off. Talon said, "Simoon's pretty neat, huh?"

"Yep," said Knuckles.

There was a pause. Then Talon said, "He's like ... really your kid. Not just adopted."

"Yep," said Knuckles. He could see where this was headed.

"So," said Talon, keeping his eyes on the river, "am I still ... you know .  
do you and Zephyer still want me?"

Knuckles put an arm around Talon's shoulders. "Of course we do, Tal. You shouldn't even have to ask."

Talon looked up at him, still uncertain. "You sure pay more attention to him ..."

Knuckles laughed. "He's a newborn, Talon! Of course we pay more attention to him. The bigger he gets, though, the more independent he'll be, and he won't take up so much time."

"Oh." Talon returned his gaze to the river, somewhat soothed. After a moment he asked, "What about Silver?"

"What about him?"

"Is he going to stay here forever?"

Knuckles sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what to do about Silver. You know, when he woke up, when you fixed his brain ... I thought for a minute that his memory had come back. He was talking about somebody named Blaze. But he's forgotten it all again."

"I know," said Talon. "I even asked him about it, and he doesn't remember what he said."

"I'm thinking about seeing if they'll take him down at Knothole," said Knuckles. "Maybe just for a while. But you know ... he kind of fits in with us."

Talon smiled. "He kind of does. We're all so weird up here, his weirdness just fits."

Knuckles laughed again. "Maybe we'll keep him around, then."

* * *

Zephyer sat in a rocking chair in the living room, nursing Simoon, who was falling asleep. The house was quiet. Knuckles and Talon were off somewhere, and the chao had been farmed out to Knothole for a few days. Silver was in Talon's room, humming softly to himself. Zephyer rocked and listened to the quiet, enjoying the peace.

After a while Silver emerged from the back room, a pencil in one hand and a stack of paper in the other. "Hi Zephyer," he whispered, seeing that the baby was asleep.

"Hi Silver," said Zephyer softly. "What're you doing?"

Silver walked up and held out his papers. They held drawings of a mobian cat, and were surprisingly good. "When Talon fixed my brain," he told Zephyer softly, "I woke up talking about somebody named Blaze. Talon told me. When I think about that name, I kind of remember somebody. A cat. But it's like remembering a dream, and I'm not sure how much I remember and how much I'm making up." He laid the sketches on the coffee table, sat on the couch, and sighed.

Zephyer rocked and nodded, not sure what to say.

Silver stared at the drawings a moment. Then he murmured, "Why can't I remember? Why do I have to forget like this?"

"I have a theory," said Zephyer. "But I have to tell you the story that goes with it."

Silver looked at her expectantly.

Zephyer gazed at the ceiling, remembering. "A long time ago, when I was still roboticized, a hedgehog and an echidna from the future showed up and gave Sonic and Knuckles a box. They said to destroy it. Sonic, being Sonic, opened it instead and got himself into a real mess. We wound up getting picked up by the same two kids and being taken to the future. It was a bad future. We had to travel to the past and change something to keep that future from happening. Now, when we returned to the present, Sonic and I still remembered it. But nobody else did--or they only remembered it like you remember a dream."

"But you still remember," said Silver.

"Yes," said Zephyer. "Because we didn't change my time. We changed someone else's. Everyone who was in the time that was changed forgot how it used to be. And I think that's what happened to you. Your time was changed, and ... I don't think you're supposed to exist anymore. But you do. So I think that your time is now a parallel world, and not part of this world any more. But it ruined your memories, because it was all changed so drastically."

Silver pondered this, gazing at the floor. "Does that mean that Blaze doesn't exist any more?"

"I don't know," said Zephyer. "Maybe. The only way to find out would be to somehow get back to your world, but I don't think that's possible. You'd have to talk to the Time Rippers, and we haven't seen them in years."

Silver sighed, picked up his drawings and looked at them. "I hope I do find her, someday. Or find out what happened to her."

"I think, someday, you will," said Zephyer.

The end


End file.
